Uncharted 2: the accolades are rolling in

The game is still 2 weeks away from release but big things are already being said about Uncharted 2 for the Sony Playstation 3. IGN reviewed the game a week or so ago and gave it 9.5 out of 10. They also have a video review up but I have skipped that for fear of having parts of the game spoiled. The cover of of Playstation: The Official Magazine features Uncharted 2 and this quote: "Forget game of the year. This is one of the best games of all time." The article inside is massive but is said to contain spoilers, so once again I am staying clear.

So yeah, I am stoked. This was always a day 1 purchase for me. The first one was unbelievably good and from what I have read so far, the sequel improves on just about everything. Needless to say I will be posting impressions once I have the game in hand and have given it a whirl.

Headaches suck

I have had a headache going for about 15 straight days now. I have always suffered from migraines (as have my parents) and have had spells like this before. Today I woke up with a nasty sinus headache. I am *really* getting tired of feeling like crap, and I am sure my family is tired of it as well. I am going to the doctor on Wednesday so we'll see what he has to say. Last year at about this time I had to get a CAT scan of my head (about the 5th time a doctor has had me do that) so we'll see if that is gonna be the game plan again. I am not worried that it is anything serious like that; like I said, this has been going on forever and it's a family thing. What I really need to do is see an ENT specialist and get my sinuses checked out. Most of my migraines start out as sinus headaches.

Anyway, here's to feeling better tomorrow! And thanks, Barb, for all you do to help make me feel better. You're the best!

FIFA 10 gets a rave review from IGN UK

Usually the UK is pretty hard on the soccer, er...football games that come down the pike. Not this time. IGN UK loves FIFA 10, giving it a 9.3 overall score. What I found most promising was this passage:
"...results in a game that behaves exactly as you'd expect a real game of football to play out. This fidelity conversely makes FIFA 10 easier to play, and more importantly it's much more enjoyable than previous FIFAs."

Now I have always liked the previous FIFA titles because I love soccer (er, football) and the FIFA game features a crazy amount of teams and leagues. But the gameplay itself has often been frustrating to me. Pulling off routine moves such as headers seemed more like a chore than anything and after a while I got tired of feeling like I was always battling against the controls. The demo of FIFA 10 seemed to play a lot better to me (in the very limited time I spend with it) and now it appears as that will indeed be the case for full game. This is music to my ears.

I was seriously considering skipping FIFA this year, or at least relegating it to the Christmas List section, but now I may have to seriously rethink this. Of course as always the question will be just when will I find the time to play it? I am finishing up Fallout 3, so that will be done with before too long. But I still have many other games waiting for me, including open-ended games like The Beatles: Rock Band and a plethora of sports games, including the excellent Madden 10 and NHL 10. FIFA may not get played a lot right off the bat, but it will probably make my collection of sports games needing attention.

Back to Fallout 3

With a whole lot of games demanding my playing time (NHL 10, IL-2 Sturmovik and of course The Beatles: Rock Band), what have a I been spending time with lately? My 2008 Game Of The Year winner Fallout 3. I had downloaded a bunch of the extra content and even finished some of it a long time ago, but when the Broken Steel add-on was released, it allowed you to advance 10 more levels, (geek speak alert!!!) from the previous maximum of 20 to 30. So I reloaded a previously saved game from before I had finished any of the DLC and started the add-ons all over again.

Even though, as mentioned, this was my 2008 GOTY, I forgot just how tremendous a game Fallout 3 is. The add-ons that I have completed - Point Lookout, The Pitt and Operation Alaska - are all grade A levels and add a lot of depth to an already massive game. I still have yet to begin the actual Broken Steel DLC, but it is coming up soon.

It has been a real pleasure to dig back into Fallout 3. According to my game saves, I have logged over 115 hours with this game. And I have enjoyed every single minute of it. Now THAT is value. If you like RPGs, epic adventures or just flat out excellent games, you owe it to yourself to check out Fallout 3. Take my word for it, you won't be sorry.

All You Need Is Love needs only 2 days to set Rock Band download record

This is from the Kotaku web site: The combination of an iconic tune representing both a band and an era, sold to support a charity, helped the Beatles' "All You Need is Love' become the fastest-selling downloadable song in Rock Band history, two days after its release.

It's awesome that people came through to support a worthy charity like Doctors Without Borders. That's certainly keeping with the message of the song.

First (small) complaint about The Beatles: Rock Band

I wanted to go through the entire story mode playing an instrument and singing backup vocals. The Beatles' background vocals were such an integral part of what they did that it made perfect sense that Harmonix made them a key addition to this game. But things are a little bit different than I hoped - you cannot sing just the backing vocals if no one else is singing lead. At all times, if you are doing vocals, the lead part must be sung or the performance meter will drop until you fail the song.

This can be remedied 2 ways: Sing the lead vocal part and switch to background vocals when they come in, or play on the Easy setting with the No Fail mode on. Neither one is the ideal solution, however. Singing lead and then backing vocals is complicated, can leave you out of breath and, well, sort of defeats the purpose of wanting to sing just backup in the first place. And singing in No Fail mode is only available on the Easy setting, which is way way too simple. It's just not a challenge to hit the notes at this level. And even then, your score will be all screwed up because you are still being penalized for not singing the lead part.

I hope that the ability to sing JUST background will be added to the game. It's what I had envisioned when I learned that background vocals were to be included. It's certainly something I can live with the way it is now, but I am hoping this game keeps Getting Better All The Time.

Don't run in flip flops!

A lesson was learned today as I pushed John in his little car through the neighborhood sidewalks. I started running to give the little guy more of a thrill than our usual plodding pace. My toenail on my big toe got caught on the top of the inside of my flip flop and it darn near got torn off. It was a bloody mess and it hurts like hell. Barb and I have a wedding and reception to go to tomorrow and it looks like anything other than slow dancing is out of the question.

NHL 10 out today

It's getting wonderful reviews again this year. It's a must-buy for me at some point. I was going to go the 360 route, but if I can get my Canucklehead buddy Pete to promise me we will actually set up times to play online, I may go with the PS3 version; we love playing co-op.

Right now I still have The Beatles Rock Band and IL-2 Sturmovik to finish up (though Beatles Rock Band will never truly be finished; it will just go on and on and on...) so I am not in any huge hurry for NHL 10, depending on what Pete ends up doing.

UPDATE: It looks like playing co-op is not possible, so I will probably be going with the 360 version. Bummer, but with my crazy schedule I am not sure how often Pete and I could hook up anyway. Still, I wish we had the option to try!

Even God can't help the Rams

Seahawks 28, Rams 0. I really believe in Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo. I think he's the right guy to turn this mess of a franchise around. But it is gonna be a long process and I hope the fans of St. Louis have the patience to give him proper amount of time it's going to take to get this thing moving in the right direction.

I won't get into the game too much, as there isn't much that wasn't horrible. But the Rams simply must be able to get to the opposing QB if they are to have a shot in any games this year. And for a team that was supposed to be a power running team, they sure didn't show it today. They need to commit to the run early and stick with it. And as a "west coast offense" team, where were the passes to the RBs? Play calling was very shaky on the offensive side of the ball.

Penalties were extremely costly and once again guard Richie Incognito has shown the temperament of a spoiled 2 year old. He had 2 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in this game. He has a history of them throughout his career. Spags needs to send a message by either benching this clown or releasing him. But I am afraid that, like the other coaches before him, he is gonna give Richie another "2nd" chance.

It's gonna be a very long season but it has to be this way. It's part of the rebuilding process.

God comes through for me!

Michigan 38, Notre Dame 34. Epic game. I watched it on replay when I got home from work. Besides the obvious fact that Michigan won, the best thing about the game is that Notre Dame coach Charlie "We'll have a decided schematic advantage" Weis blew the game late in the 4th quarter with horrible play calling. Words of advice, Charlie: when you are winning with 2 minutes left to play, you have the ball, it's 2nd down and your opponent has 2 timeouts left, it's probably not the right time to dial up a deep pass down the sideline. If it falls incomplete, which it did, the clock stops. Then on 3rd down, with the clock stopped because of your previously stupid (read: arrogant) call, you really shouldn't pass again because when it is incomplete (again) you have just saved your opponent both of their timeouts and plenty of time is still left on the clock. Michigan scored the winning TD with 11 seconds left to play. I wonder if you had run the ball twice instead of passing it, do you think it may have eaten up 11 seconds? Hmmm? If not, what about the timeouts? Think those would have had to have been spent? Then Michigan couldn't have stopped the clock on their last drive and scored the winning TD. I hope this is finally the nail in your coffin at Notre Dame, you arrogant, overhyped canker sore. Charlie Weis, ladies and gentlemen, the only person in history to have gastric bypass surgery and gain weight.

Sorry, that was mean-spirited. I just cannot stand arrogance. Anyway, I want to thank God for giving me such a nice gift today. I really do appreciate it. Now if only He/She/It can come through again by helping my Rams win the season opener against the Seahawks tomorrow...

Good versus Evil - and I can't watch

Michigan versus Notre Dame today. The game starts at 2:30. And I am due in at work at... 2:30. This sucks. Hard.

I know this, however: If Notre Dame wins, then God has forsaken me.*











*just kidding, God.

Finished Story Mode in The Beatles: Rock Band

Awesome stuff. Playing The End as the final song was excellent. I can't wait for the Abbey Road DLC to drop so I can play the entire Abbey Road side 2 medley together.

Laurel's dance class

Unfortunately the class is in a very small room and only the dancers and teachers are allowed in. There is a tiny window in the door and that is the only place to see in, so I could not videotape a single thing. Laurel did very well in her first class, which has both ballet and tap dancing. Most of the other kids in the class seem to have taken dance lessons before, but Laurel did not appear to behind them from what I could tell. The kids were a little unruly, which really threw Laurel off. When class was over she said she liked the dancing but not all of the class. We are going to see how the next class goes and if she still feels uncomfortable than we may try to get her in a different class. I think she'd be fine in this class once she got used to it, but once she makes up her mind about something she can be very bull-headed. She comes by that honestly, I am ashamed to say.

I'll have more updates as the year goes on. Hopefully she will give it a real go because she loves to dance and she is really good at it, if I may be so bold.

The Day After 9/9/09

Hey, that's a punny title referring to the release date of TB:RB and the Beatles' song The One After 909! How clever am I? SCORE!

OK, seriously, here are my day-after thoughts. I played the game for a good 5-6 hours last night. All I can say is I had an absolute blast. It's definitely the most fun I have ever had with a music game. It's not a game that is going to overly impress the Guitar Hero gods who can master every song on the hardest difficulty. This game is about having fun, and it delivers in spades. Simply put, there is nothing out there that equals the joy of playing guitar (or bass) and singing at the same time. It has to be experienced. It's like a high. It is the closest I will ever come to playing live in a band. Now I am not saying that this even comes close to playing a real instrument in a real band. No one would ever make that kind of an argument. But this simulates the experience of performing - of singing and playing - about as well as I can imagine. And it is tremendous fun.

I played the drums for a bit and the kit is nice and solid, better than the RB1 kit. I do wish there were drum fills like in RB1, but the developers wanted to stay true to Ringo's drumming, which I understand. Barb played drums on quite a few songs last night and she got noticeably better as we continued. She came in completely cold and by the end of the night she was scoring in the mid 70's. That's pretty damned impressive.

Like everyone else, I wish there were more songs available. The set list is damned good, though I could do without a track here and there (I Dig A Pony, anyone?) Albums are scheduled to be released on the 15th of October (Abbey Road), November (Sgt. Pepper) and December (Rubber Soul). While that is extremely cool (Abbey Road and Rubber Soul are 2 of my favorite albums of all time), I wish they were being released sooner as I will be wearing out the tracks on the disc before then. And I am seriously hoping that while we are waiting for the albums to drop that individual songs - singles or B-sides - are made available in the meantime. Penny Lane would be an awesome one to drop on us, for example, with Paul's swirling bass line.

This is a game that will keep me interested for a long time, as long as Harmonix keeps putting out more music. The Limited Edition bundle was quite pricey and really not worth the money unless you are a Beatles fanatic like me. I had to have the Hofner bass (my other RB guitar is wired, too) and I really like the better-built drum kit. The mic stand is essential for playing and singing at the same time and it is a nice stand. But you could probably pick up a cheap one somewhere and not have to shell out for the bundle. And you'd think that for the $250 price tag that they could have made the mic wireless, but you'd be wrong. It's not a big deal at all to me, but this bundle was not cheap. It was absolutely worth it to me, but probably not to 99% of the population.

Overall the game itself gets a solid A+ from me. That is hardly shocking to anyone that knows me, but it is well earned. There is simply nothing better than playing as one of the Fab Four, singing songs that you know and love and having the time of your life as you do so.

The Beatles: Rock Band impressions

Got it today and (surprise surprise!) I love it. First, the guitar controller (Paul's Hofner bass) is very nice. It's a bit more solid than the normal gaming guitars and it's a beauty. The Start button has been a little touchy for me; it didn't want to work at first and I kind of have to manipulate it a bit to get it to work now. But I think it will be okay, so we'll see.

The drums looks solid. I like the heavy duty foot pedal. I have not played the drums yet though so I cannot comment on how they work.

For the first time in one of these music games, I was able to play and sing at the same time. I have always wanted to be Paul McCartney and now I can be! I aced Getting Better (though the guitar was set to Easy and it really was easy) with the vocals set to medium. I had the mic stand set up and I was just a rockin'. This was a fantastic thing, I gotta tell you.

I have started story mode and gotten out of the Cavern Club and onto the Ed Sullivan Show. I played the guitar solo on Can't Buy Me Love (I have always loved that) and smoked it. I have two more songs there and then I'll be moving on again.

I played a bit of quick play mode and I played Get Back (awesome guitar bits) and sang I've Got A Feeling. The only way I can hit the high notes is with a very silly sounding falsetto but it hits the notes perfectly. Still, I think I'll be singing songs like that in private.

I'll have more thoughts as I dig deeper into the game. I only wish my buddy Pete from up north was here. We'd be jamming big time!

Finished Batman: Arkham Asylum

Terrific game, first class all the way. Compelling story, tremendous production values and very easy to pick up and play. As I said earlier, this will be a Game Of The Year finalist for me. One thing, and this may be because I have been in Beatles: Rock Band countdown mode for nearly 9 months, is that I am not compelled to go back and play it again. At least not right now. Usually a game as good as this has me wanting to dive right back in, but not this game at this moment. That is not a knock on this game in the least, just a feeling I have about it as of now.

IGN reviews The Beatles: Rock Band

The Beatles: Rock Band at IGN.com

Big night tonight!

Tonight is Laurel's first dance class! We are so psyched and she is really excited. She has been counting down the days for a loooong time. I have the video camera charged up and I need to get some blank tapes and we should be all set. She and Barb got her outfit and shoes (ballet and tap) a little while back so we are good to go. I'll give a report on how things go, but I think she may be a natural!

Finished Uncharted

Great game, almost like a real interactive movie. The story is terrific; I'd pay to see it on the silver screen. The characters are all well fleshed out, especially the main 3: Drake, Elena and Sully. I am hearing Elena has a reduce role in the sequel (there's another gal that teams up with Drake) and I find that to be a bummer. I really liked her intelligent girl-next-door character and it looks the new gal is made up to just be sexier. But Elena and Drake had real chemistry going and I hope to see them continue on in future installments.

Now it's back to Batman, IL-2 and The Beatles: Rock Band, which is released on Wednesday.

Revisiting "Uncharted"

In the course of showing my buddy Pete some games he might be interested in, I played Uncharted: Drake's Fortune for about an hour or so. I was instantly hooked again. I am in the midst of playing a couple of high quality games, Batman: Arkham Asylum and IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey. Yet the first game I returned to when I got some free time was Uncharted. I am about 75% of the way through and I am having a blast. The exploring was always a highlight for me but this time the combat feels a lot nicer as well. My first time through I thought there was too much combat and that the enemies took too many shots to go down. Now I think it feels just right. Uncharted 2 is set to come out in October and now I am really stoked for that one. I'll have to find time to finish the first Uncharted again, then Batman, IL-2 and get in plenty of time with The Beatles: Rock Band and NHL '10 before then. Don't know how on earth that will happen, but you never know.

Vacation is over...

Our dear friends Pete and Joyce are on their way back to Canada after a wonderful week spent here in St. Louis. We had a great time and now the house seems totally empty. It's quite a jolt. Barb and I are gonna settle in and get back into our routine but we are sure gonna miss our friends from up North.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey released today after all

GameStop was still confused on the actual release date for the game but decided that it was okay to sell it. They only got 2 copies in, 1 for the 360 and one for the PS3. I got the 360 version and my buddy Pete promptly snapped up the PS3 version. He's not really into flight games but he was mighty impressed by the demo. I installed the game to my hard drive buy have not had a chance to play it yet - we played Rock Band with our visitors and had a blast. Pete really dug playing the drums but he struggled with the guitar; ironic, since he is a fine player on the real thing. I think he and Joyce will definitely be picking up Rock Band in the near future.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey release date confusion

GameStop says the shipping date was yesterday, it should arrive at their stores today, but the street date for it is not until September 8th. Looks like I will be picking it up next week along with The Beatles: Rock Band, unless I can find somewhere that simply puts it on the shelf early. But I am not gonna be looking very hard.

IGN raves about IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

This is my next game purchase. IGN gave the game an 8.6 in it's review, which you can read right here.